1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a directory management method, and a device, and a program for the directories management, and storage medium for the program directories using terminal equipment connected to a client-server type network. The present invention can also be applied to similar applications using mobile communication terminal equipment, such as cellular phones, connected to a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
With computers becoming increasingly popular in educational institutions in recent years, various types of learning systems have been developed which enable learners (including elementary school children, junior and senior high school students, university and college students, and other students learning in vocational schools, trainees in corporate training and education institutions, and students in preparatory schools) to actually operate computers in their classes to get access to files relating to the contents of subjects they are learning, or store notes of their learning results in the learning system. In such a system, a hierarchical directory structure is generally employed to organize and store files by grade, subject or student for referring them later.
As means for facilitating the understanding of hierarchical directory structures, there are methods of identifying directories using linguistic labels or metaphors, such as “drawers,” as commonly found in commercially available image management systems.
It is extremely difficult, however, for learners, particularly beginners at computers, who have to operate their computers in classes in educational institutions, to understand hierarchical directory structures. Even when linguistic labels or metaphors such as “drawers” are used, the knowledge of hierarchical structures is essential.
Lack of the knowledge of hierarchical directory structures could lead to the following problems. That is, a learner may not quickly find the directory asked by the instructor to find and open during the lesson, or may store a file prepared by him in a wrong directory. As a result, not only the learner's learning speed may be lowered, but also the progress of learning of the entire class may be obstructed. In addition, when there are a plurality of directories to be opened or directories to which files are to be saved, the situation could become more serious.
At the same time, instructors, including teachers and trainers, also have the problem of file management. In an educational institution equipped with computers, the instructor must create necessary directories for learners to use computers or maintain proper lesson management.
Under such circumstances, cases creating directories having the same name under a plurality of parent directories happen frequently. When preparing topics for a subject, for example, topic directories must be provided under each learner's directory where each learner can maintain his own files on those topics. To keep files to a particular class, topic directories of the same name must be provided below each class' directory. Furthermore, topic directories of the same name must also be provided below each grade directory to keep files that are used commonly in a grade. Preparing a number of directories for each directory would involve quite burdensome operations for instructors.
Similarly it is time-consuming and inefficient to save files of the same name in a plurality of directories of the same name, or to find a particular directory one by one from an actual directory structure.